


The Day That We'll Watch the Death of the Sun

by i_am_made_of_memoriies



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Planet Destruction, Raph and nastya talk about blowing shit up as one does, Some Humor, science girl bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:08:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28498065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_am_made_of_memoriies/pseuds/i_am_made_of_memoriies
Summary: Raphaella ruminates on the destruction of Midgard and all of the planets in that solar system, and finds that Nastya has valuable advice to give on that topic.Written for the Mechscord Winter Gift Exchange!!
Relationships: The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina (minor)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8
Collections: The Mechscord Winter Gift Exchange





	The Day That We'll Watch the Death of the Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sunflowersandrosesanddaffodilstogether](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunflowersandrosesanddaffodilstogether/gifts).



> So this fic is gifted to Char and I really hope you enjoy this fic!! I had a lot of fun writing from Raph's perspective since I really haven't done that before! :D  
> (Did I bring Nastya in, still? Maybe I did....)

Raphaella found that it took weeks before eldritch rainbow residue washed out of her hair. In all of the millenia of her life, she had never seen a star system collapse in the same manner that the Yggdrasil system did. Normally, she would want nothing more than to research this phenomena, probing through records that Ivy illegally downloaded, and running any experiments that she could with the remnants of the solar system. Normally, she would be incredibly intrigued by the rainbow effect–especially the way it left a residue on the victims of the explosion, but, despite the fact that she was faced with a phenomena she had never before witnessed, Raphaella had no urge to plunge herself into a frenzy of research or experimentation. The entire incident with the Bifrost left her feeling–she could not quite place a finger on the feeling, but if she were to hazard a guess, she would say “melancholy”. 

Something about the destruction of an entire culture, the death of countless people, and the loss of scientific advances, discoveries, and practices left Raphaella mourning a solar system she had barely gotten to know. Merely 80 years in a prison does not provide one with much knowledge of an entire complex culture. She managed to learn an iota of the technological capabilities of the Yggdrasil solar system from the way the black box was configured, but her prison cell was disappointingly sparse, and she did not break out often enough to explore thoroughly. Though, the more Raphaella thought about it, the more she realized that she mourned more for the loss of the people than she did for the fact that she missed the opportunity to learn about the scientific advances. Strange! 

Shaking her head, as if to clear her thoughts, Raphaella rose from her seat in her lab, wiped off her work station, and made her way to the kitchen for a quick lunch. Marius sat, moping at the table, as he had been since he, Raphaella, and Ivy returned from Midgard. 

“Still mourning your crush?” She asked, nudging Marius with her elbow. 

Marius raised his cheek from its squished position on his hand and groaned. “They were not my crush! It’s all just so  _ tragic,  _ Raphaella! You wouldn’t understand, being all cruel, and brutal, and science…” His last sentence petered out into a grumble as he let his head fall back to the table. 

Raphaella chuckled half-heartedly and grabbed some bread from the cupboard, gliding back to her lab, toast in hand. She was usually cruel and brutal, was she not? But now, she almost understood where Marius was coming from. The destruction of the Yggdrasil system truly was tragic. 

She returned to her lab to see the door open, and Nastya leaning on a table, obviously waiting for her return. 

“You needed something?” Raphaella landed soundlessly on the ground, closing the door behind her.

Nastya nodded, fishing out a blueprint from one of her pockets. “Right, so I had planned to do some retrofits on the outer hull, but I was not entirely sure if what I had planned would work, so I figured I’d run it by you first if that’s okay?”

Raphaella nodded, shoving her bread in her mouth and joining Nastya by the table to get a good glance at the blueprint, yet as she was trying to focus on the diagrams and measurements in front of her, her mind wandered back to the sunny streets of Midgard and the grumpy prison guard with their peculiar accent. To be fair, if Lyffrasir had acted immediately after watching the black box, they could have survived, though Raphaella would never tell Marius that. He was much better off thinking that Inspector Lyffrasir was dead than holding onto possibly apocryphal hope that they were alive. 

“Raphaella?” Nastya’s voice was slightly raised, as if she had been saying Raphaella’s name a few times prior. “Are you alright? You seem a little spaced out.”

Raphaella’s eyes snapped back into focus as she pushed memories of Midgard to the back of her mind. Before she opened her mouth to dismiss Nastya’s concern with a simple “I’m fine,” she realized that Nastya might understand her sadness. In fact, Nastya would understand even better than she did, having not only destroyed her own planet, but being the lone survivor of Cyberia. 

“The destruction of the Yggdrasil system,” Raphaella started, her wings fluttering nervously, “it’s made me sad. That is a great loss.”

“Truly.” Nastya nodded, pulling up a stool and settling down next to Raphaella. “That was countless people, books, cities, and so many other things. It’s quite difficult to wrap your head around all of that.”

“I’ve seen a lot of destruction, I mean, I’ve  _ done _ a lot of destruction. But nothing on this scale. I suppose you’d–”

Nastya finished Raphaella’s sentence. “I’d understand? Yes. I destroyed countless people, books, cities, and so many other things myself, but Cyberia was rotting from its core, and it was so nearly on the brink of collapse. I just sped up its inevitable decay. The Yggdrasil system, on the other hand, seemed to be on an upwards trajectory of improvement. You and I both know how tragic it is to end a story before its arc is finished.”

Raphaella nodded thoughtfully. It truly was a shame that the only ones left to carry on the memory of the entire Yggdrasil system were three immortals who had only really seen the inside of a prison. 

“Do you try to make sure the memory of Cyberia does not fall into obscurity?” Raphaella hoped that Nastya could provide some tips on how to preserve information on the Yggdrasil system.

“No. Aurora and I are memory enough. Cyberia was too wrought with pain and tyranny to deserve a lasting legacy. But you, Ivy, and Marius should do your best to record any information you have of Midgard. I’m sure Ivy has plenty of pirated information she can upload to any cloud on any planet. And you may have only seen that black box once, but I’m sure you could recreate it if you so wanted to.” 

“We could do that!” Raphaella grinned at the mention of a new project. “If I remember correctly, Marius mentioned, between his moping, that he wanted to make our experience on Midgard into our next musical project. That would certainly preserve some memory.”

“Memory of its demise but memory nonetheless. Plus, it would give an insight into the formerly corrupt governing system.”

“Yes, and I could play Odin!”

“The corrupt ruler who got involved with the outer gods?”

“Yes!”

“Sounds very on-brand,” Nastya chuckled, running a hand through her hair.

“And who would you like to play? You could really connect to Sigyn or Loki, you know!”

Nastya grimaced, glancing over to one of Aurora’s cameras in the corner. “Both of those roles hit a bit close to home, don’t you think? In fact, I’ve got so much work to do for at least the next decade, I may just help compose this album.”

Raphaella shrugged. “Okay, if you want to! Now, let me take a look at this blueprint.”

“Right, that’s what I came down here for in the first place, wasn’t it?”

“Maybe, but I think your advice was far more helpful than any of my engineering suggestions could be.”

  
  



End file.
